ABINGDON — Wednesday’s public assembly on Virginia’s six-year transportation funding plan introduced again reminiscences of conferences three many years in the past as legislators, native authorities officers and highschool college students got here to foyer for Coalfields Expressway funding.
Virginia Transportation Secretary W. Sheppard Miller III joined Bristol District Commonwealth Transportation Board member Tom Fowlkes and officers from the Virginia Division of Transportation on the Southwest Virginia Greater Training Middle to listen to remark from about 80 individuals on the VDOT Bristol Transportation District’s a part of the plan.
Miller, in opening remarks, stated the draft plan included about $51 billion in state and federal funding for about 4,500 initiatives statewide. Of that, the Bristol District is slated for a proposed $993 million over the following six fiscal years to cowl 179 initiatives starting from bridge overhaul and street building to pedestrian/bicycle entry and guardrails.
Feedback, nevertheless, have been dominated by authorities and growth officers and a delegation of Smart and Dickenson counties’ highschool college students calling for together with the roughly 57-mile Coalfields Expressway within the transportation plan.
About 14 miles of the Expressway — U.S. Route 121 Hall Q in VDOT planning — have been funded for $288 million. thirty eighth District Republican state Sen. Travis Hackworth and state Delegate Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, requested Miller and the Transportation Board to decide to funding for the remaining 44 miles of Virginia’s Expressway section.
Hackworth stated a just lately opened fan producer in Buchanan County has issues discovering trucking corporations prepared to return into the county to ship its merchandise due to the mountainous roads within the space.
Morefield stated Expressway building past Buchanan County is required in Dickenson County due to its lack of any four-lane highways to help financial growth.
“Richmond, we’ve got an issue,” Coalfields Expressway Authority Chairman Jay Rife of Buchanan County stated, paraphrasing a line from the film “Apollo 13.” He stated the Expressway wants extra state funding to develop the Virginia part from U.S. Route 23 close to Pound to its reference to the West Virginia section to Interstate 64.
Rife and Buchanan County enterprise proprietor Cathy St. Clair joined different officers in asking Miller and the Transportation Board to help requests for the Appalachian Regional Fee to designate your complete Expressway as a part of its record of precedence corridors for growth.
“I notice it’s in all probability one of the vital costly initiatives the state has undertaken,” Rife stated, including {that a} accomplished Virginia Expressway additionally helps Scott and Lee counties’ financial growth.
Dickenson County Administrator Larry Barton and Board of Supervisors members Peggy Kiser, Rhonda Sluss and Ron Peters echoed Rife’s feedback. Sluss, referring to the county’s nickname of “Virginia’s Child,” stated a child wants milk however Dickenson County wants the meat of a Coalfields Expressway.
Barton stated the Expressway will present transportation hyperlinks for a creating industrial park on the Smart-Dickenson county line.
Smart County Administrator Mike Hatfield additionally known as for your complete Expressway to be added into the draft six-year plan. Apart from its financial growth potential, he cited the Expressway’s potential to enhance street security over the present Route 83 hall via Smart and Dickenson counties.
Aislinn Litton, a rising senior at Union Excessive Faculty in Huge Stone Hole, stated she had discovered via her analysis of the Expressway’s significance in enhancing the area’s freeway entry for financial growth and tourism. She added that her uncle had labored on bridge designs for the Expressway.
Kirsten Brooks, a senior at Ridgeview Excessive Faculty in Dickenson County, advised Miller and the panel {that a} accomplished Coalfields Expressway will imply a number of benefits to the county’s youngsters and college students, together with secure and environment friendly transportation to county faculties and to schools outdoors the area. The Expressway would additionally imply higher transportation infrastructure to draw new companies and provides graduates a purpose to remain within the county.
“(The Expressway) has the potential to revive this space to its former glory,” Brooks stated.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board is predicted to vote on the six-year plan in June.